According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, at least two Australians per day are arrested in an overseas country in relation to alleged offences. Many of those arrested are subsequently detained and their detention poses challenges related to consular assistance and for effective legal representation. This subject considers the international legal obligations of detaining States to allow consular access to foreign detainees and the role Australian authorities regularly play. It will also expose some of the challenges of coordinating legal representation both in Australia and in the detaining country. This subject is unique in Australia and the lecturers will draw on their extensive practical experience and their academic scholarship to present relevant, topical and cutting-edge material.

Principal topics include:

• Alternative bases for the exercise of national criminal jurisdiction
• Privileges and immunities
• Consular assistance and the law of consular relations
• Australia’s national approach to the provision of consular assistance
• The appointment of legal counsel in the detaining State and in Australia
• Case studies of selected Australians detained abroad.

In many ways, national constitutions are closely tied to their nation states. They are made with the authority of the people of the state. They are often important national symbols. Arguably, they need to be responsive to the circumstances of the state, in order to be effective. On the other hand, constitutional rights are becoming increasingly globalised, drawing freely on comparative experience as well as international human rights norms. This subject provides an international perspective on bills of rights, exploring both the similarities in norms and differences in the ways in which they are understood and given effect. In doing so, it provides insights into how new constitutional rights instruments might most effectively be designed and interpreted. It covers topics such as: arguments for and against bills of rights, the institutional arrangements for the enforcement of bills of rights, proportionality or limitation analysis, the horizontal application of bills of rights and socio-economic rights. The relevance of these issues to the interests of students in the class will be a theme throughout the subject. The lecturer is a leading comparative constitutional rights scholar, whose writings on The New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism have attracted world-wide attention.

Principal topics will include:

• The context: Australia today—its current Constitution and the Bill of Rights debate
• Constitutional rights in Canada: When they arrived (1982); what they look like; how the Charter of Rights and Freedoms balances the powers of the courts and legislatures and what Canada might have to offer Australia
• Comparisons with other forms of rights protection in the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand
• Constitutional rights in federal systems of government (i.e., Canada, the United States and Australia)
• The literature and theory of judicial review: The nature of the debate, the relationship between courts and legislatures and judicial review under different models (i.e. ‘strong’ versus ‘weak’ rights-protecting instruments)
• Australia’s future options going forward.

This subject explores comparative constitutional law from a deliberately global perspective. It seeks to take account of the constitutional experience of all regions of the world including Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australasia. It thus provides an excellent platform on which to evaluate the competing claims of constitutional universalism and particularism, to critically test the global relevance of a range of constitutional theories and practices and to understand how context and culture affect constitutional law in an age of globalisation. Key topics of general relevance chosen for the purposes of comparison include executive/legislative relations, judicial review, constitutional change, socio-economic rights and the relationship between domestic constitutional and international law. The lecturers are leading constitutional scholars from India and Australia respectively, who bring to the subject different bodies of knowledge and experience.

Principal topics include:

• Mapping the constitutions of the world
• Methodological challenges in comparative constitutional law
• Concepts of a constitution
• Executive/legislative relations
• Courts and judicial review
• Socio-economic rights
• Constitutional change
• Comparative constitutional problem-solving.

Many established Constitutions of the world of the 21st century provide for federalism or related forms of territorial devolution, as do many of the more recent Constitutions, especially those drawn up in the aftermath of conflict. This subject examines federal Constitutions as a sub-set of comparative constitutional law. It takes a global perspective that encompasses federal-type systems in all regions of the world, whether formed by aggregation or devolution. It canvasses the theories that underpin federal arrangements, the principal design options, the interface between federalism and the protection of individual or group rights, federal Constitutions in operation over time, judicial interpretation of federal Constitutions and the methodological problems that arise in comparing federal constitutions. Professors Jackson and Saunders, the lecturers in the subject, come respectively from the United States and Australia. They bring to the subject deep knowledge of their own federations and considerable expertise in comparative federalism and comparative constitutional law.

Principal topics include:

• Mapping the federal-type systems of the world
• Key features of federal constitutional systems: power; resources; institutions; other
• Interface between federalism and other constitutional arrangements, including rights protection and the form of government
• Judicial interpretation of federal constitutions
• Methodological challenges in comparative federal constitutional law.

Human rights adjudication has expanded in many jurisdictions across the world in the past few decades. Yet there is still scepticism about the role of courts in human rights adjudication and the question whether Australia should adopt a justiciable bill of rights remains an open one. This subject will provide students with the opportunity to reflect critically on the role of courts in human rights adjudication by introducing them to the different approaches to the adjudication of human rights in a range of jurisdictions including South Africa, India, the United States, Germany, Canada, Israel, the European Union and Australia. Several key human rights issues that have arisen in different jurisdictions will be analysed and compared.

Principal topics include:

• What are human rights?
• Different approaches to judicial review of rights
• Different traditions and conceptions of constitutionalism and of rights jurisprudence
• Key issues in rights jurisprudence: hate speech, political speech, freedom of religion, social and political rights
• Current challenges for human rights protections.

More than 90 new constitutions have been made for countries across all regions of the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Currently, constitution-making is actively underway in a range of states and pending in others. This concentrated burst of activity has given rise to a range of new ideas about the nature and purpose of constitutions, constitutional solutions to contemporary problems, the processes of constitution-making and the proper role of international actors. This subject explores these issues, with particular reference to a series of topical case studies, including Fiji, Iraq, Kenya, Nepal, Timor-Leste and Yemen. The lecturers are constitutional scholars with practical experience in the field who add to the excitement and relevance of the subject

Principal topics include:

• Nature, functions and limitations of constitutions
• Circumstances in which constitutions are likely to be renewed or substantially changed
• Influences on new constitutions
• Substance of constitutions
• Phases of constitution-making:
  • Peace process (if any)
  • Setting the agenda
  • Design and writing
  • Approval and adoption
  • Implementation
  • Interpretation
  • Selected case studies drawn from Egypt, Fiji, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Yemen and Zimbabwe among others.

Constitutional government is limited government. Government is limited by the establishment of rules governing its institutions and by dividing power along federal lines. Equally important are those aspects of constitutions that identify specific limitations on government. These constitutional law provisions and judicially created doctrines are the focus of this course. Constitutional rights, freedoms and limitations have been the subject of many of the most important High Court cases of recent decades. The subject will provide a thematic and in-depth discussion of those cases, including cases on freedom of political communication, voting rights, separation of judicial power (and its effect on federal and state courts), intergovernmental immunities, freedom of interstate trade in a federation and the rule of law as a limitation on power.

This subject will therefore explain and critically analyse the key contemporary questions relating to these areas of constitutional law in the context of ongoing debates in comparable jurisdictions. It will help students understand the current complexity and anticipate future developments in the High Court.

Principal topics include:

• The nature and extent of the ‘express limitations on power in the Australian Constitution including:
  • Freedom of religion
  • The right of trial by jury
  • Freedom of interstate trade
• The nature and extent of the separation of judicial powers in the Australian Constitution including the significance of the separation of judicial power for federal and state courts and for charters of rights (like the Victorian Charter of Rights and Responsibilities)
• The implication protecting representative and responsible government including the significance of the implication for voting rights, the financing of political campaigns and rights of protest in Australia
• Key methodological issues arising in the judicial interpretation of limitations on power including the role of proportionality analysis.

From one of the earliest concerns of morality and political philosophy to the subject of the latest global treaty sponsored by the United Nations, corruption has had a fascinating role in human affairs. Corruption’s importance as a matter of law and policy has grown in recent decades, thanks to an increasing awareness of its devastating effects on development efforts, human rights, democracies, economies, and environmental protection efforts. Responding to that growing importance, this subject provides an overview of domestic, regional, and global approaches to corruption.

The domestic approaches examined in this subject include those undertaken by a sample of Latin American and Asian countries, as well as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The regional approaches targeted include those sponsored by the Organization of American States, the Asian Development Bank, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Bank. Finally, at the global level, this seminar covers the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

Entering into force in 2005 and obtaining 183 States Parties by 2017, the UNCAC has taken strides in implementing a comprehensive and partially binding global approach to corruption. This subject explores the five pillars of that approach—international cooperation, preventative measures, criminalization and law enforcement measures, asset recovery, and technical assistance and information exchange—and their linkages to domestic and regional initiatives. A major question at this stage will be the UNCAC’s ability (or potential) to supplement or improve upon those pre-existing initiatives.   

At each of its three levels of legal inquiry (domestic, regional, and global), this seminar examines questions of substantive law (what conduct is targeted), procedure (how are suspected violations of the law exposed and addressed), institutions (how is each legal framework administered and modified), and effectiveness (under a number of metrics). Notably, this subject addresses the advantages and criticisms of anti-corruption law in its many forms.     

Although this subject relies primarily on legal analysis, it also encompasses economics, history, and political science. That interdisciplinarity enables the consideration of the broader questions that inform anti-corruption law. Those questions include: How are definitions and patterns of corruption changing over time? What effects does corruption have on development, businesses, local economies, and global capitalism? What effects does it have on human rights, democratization, elections, and lawmaking? What lessons have been learned about the effectiveness of different legal approaches to corruption? How could domestic, regional, and international anti-corruption initiatives be improved?  

Principal topics include:

• What is corruption? How is corruption defined by different legal regimes?
• How does corruption manifest in distinct environments, including campaign and party finance, elections, lawmaking, law enforcement, government procurement, business, international development efforts, and banking and finance? What are corruption’s economic, political, and social effects?
• What are the regulatory challenges involved in preventing, exposing, and punishing corruption in its distinct environments? To what extent have domestic, regional, and international legal regimes been successful in meeting those challenges?
• How could those laws and institutions be improved? In particular, what are the main successes and shortcomings of the UN system for preventing and combatting corruption? What are its prospects for improvement? 
• What are the different roles that lawyers play in addressing corruption? What skill sets do they employ?

This could not be a more interesting and important time to engage with some of the most challenging issues in administrative law. Australian administrative law has undergone rapid change in recent years. In significant respects it has diverged from the rest of the common law world, under the influence of the Australian Constitution. Some of the resulting doctrines are not yet in a settled state. At the same time, however, administrative law continues to play the critical role in mediating relations between people and the institutions of government that in Australia’s case is heightened by the absence of systemic arrangements for the legal protection of individual rights. The two lecturers in the subject bring a combination of practical and scholarly perspectives to bear on the selected topics, all of which are chosen for their contemporary relevance.

The subject will focus on key themes in Australian administrative law, which are likely to include:

• Jurisdictional error; the related notion of invalidity
• Unreasonableness, irrationality and illogicality
• Policy
• Boundaries of judicial review
• Constitutionalisation of administrative law.

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The powers of the executive branch of government have been debated in some of the most significant constitutional cases in Australia in recent years. Despite the High Court’s decisions in the School Chaplains Cases, Pape v FCT and migration cases including CPCF v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the scope of these powers and the validity of many government programs and activities remain very unclear.

This subject will explain and critically analyse the key contemporary questions relating to the powers of executive government in Australia. It will help students understand the current complexity and anticipate future developments in the High Court.

Key questions to be addressed include: When can the Commonwealth act through the executive branch alone? When does it require legislative support for its programs? What is the effect of legislation on the inherent powers of the executive branch? When can legislation displace, override or otherwise limit executive power? When does executive power stray into powers that can be exercised only by the legislature? How do these questions play out in the context of the federal system? Can the Commonwealth “outsource” the exercise of executive power to private bodies? Are there limits on the powers of Parliament to hold the executive accountable? What does the Commonwealth become liable for harmful consequences of executive action? What light does the constitutional law of comparable jurisdictions shed on any of these questions?

Professor Simon Evans is a constitutional law scholar at Melbourne Law School with particular expertise in the executive branch of government. Graeme Hill regularly advises the Commonwealth and state governments concerning constitutional matters and appears in the High Court in such matters, including matters related to executive power.

Principal topics include:

• The conceptual foundations of executive power: the Crown, the nation and the people
• Inherent executive power and non-statutory executive power, including the continuing relevance of “the prerogative”
• The privileges and immunities of the executive government
• The liability of the executive government
• The effect of legislation on non-statutory executive power and on executive discretion
• Responsible executive government in a contemporary federation
• The executive power to conduct foreign relations and the impact of international law
• Executive spending, contracts and section 96 grants: the impact of responsible government, federalism and separation of powers
• The executive as law-maker and the validity of delegated legislation.

A fundamental question to be considered in every court proceeding is the character of the jurisdiction being exercised by the court - whether state or federal. Federal jurisdiction is the authority conferred upon Australian courts by the Constitution and laws made under it to adjudicate upon cases within the classes of matter set out in sections 75 and 76 of the Constitution. Whether federal jurisdiction is involved is a threshold question for the parties and for the court in any proceeding.

The subject will consider the origins and concept of federal jurisdiction, its application in the Australian judicial system and the interaction between federal, state and territory laws and the common law in the exercise of federal jurisdiction. There will be discussion of how its conferral on state and territory courts supports implications limiting the imposition or conferral on those courts of functions that are inconsistent with their institutional integrity.

The subject is not without complexity but the central principles are relatively simply explained.

The subject will be delivered by the Hon Robert French AC, former Chief Justice of Australia and before that a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia for 22 years, and Frances Gordon, barrister practising in public law at the Victorian and New South Wales Bars.

Principal topics include:

• The concept of jurisdiction and the distinction between original and appellate jurisdiction
• Federal jurisdiction, its origins, the meaning of the term and the relevant constitutional provisions conferring and authorising its conferral and statutory grants conferring federal jurisdiction
• The United States model
• The Australian court system in historical and functional perspectives
• The idea of a 'court' - when is an administrative tribunal also a court for the purposes of federal jurisdiction
• The content of federal jurisdiction - the concept of the 'matter'
• The application of state and territory laws and the common law in the exercise of federal jurisdiction
• Removal and remitter of matters between the High Court and lower courts
• The Kable case and its sequelae, a consequence of the scheme for the distribution of federal jurisdiction?
• Can federal jurisdiction be abolished.

Freedom of speech is a widely agreed upon principle in free democratic societies. However, at the same time, it is at the centre of fierce and wide-ranging disputes. This subject will examine the rationales for protection of freedom of speech and key controversies about freedom of speech. The subject will be broadly comparative, examining the legal protection of freedom of speech in Australia, Europe, Asia and North America. Jurisdictions of particular focus (in addition to Australia) will include India, Malaysia, Germany, the United States and Canada.

Principal topics include:

• Normative arguments for freedom of speech and for the regulation of speech
• The legal mechanisms for protection freedom of speech in international law and selected domestic jurisdictions
• The relationship between freedom of speech and laws regulating:
  • racial and religious vilification (including holocaust denial)
  • political protest
  • electoral funding
  • terrorism and national security.

There are many bodies that exercise regulatory power at the global level. Some are traditional international bodies where the principal players are nation states. Many are transnational bodies where the principal players range from national regulators to private firms. This leads to questions as to how to legitimate and render such power accountable. The possibility of developing principles of global administrative law is one response. This subject will examine the scope of global administrative law as it currently exists, the potential for further development and the problems, both practical and conceptual, that will have to be overcome if this is to be done. The subject will include two case studies of particular international and transnational bodies, and the way in which principles of global administrative law might enhance accountability.

Principal topics include:

• The rationale for global regulation
• An overview of international and transnational regulatory bodies
• The arguments for and against development of principles of global administrative law
• The procedural and substantive content of such principles
• Case study of the World Trade Organization
• Case study of the International Organization for Standardisation.

This innovative subject is designed to explore the highly topical phenomenon of the globalisation of constitutional law. Taking the idea of legitimate authority as a focus, it examines two broad themes: (1) the extent to which national constitutional law is, or should be, converging on international standards; and (2) the extent to which international institutions are, or should be, influenced by standards of a constitutional kind. Under theme (1) it examines whether the constitutions of the world are, or ought to be, converging towards a point at which it will be possible to identify constitutional standards that apply within each state, with implications for the legitimacy of each constitutional order. Under theme (2) it examines the constitutional standards that properly apply to legitimate international legal institutions, e.g. Security Council, International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Bringing the two themes together, the subject concludes by examining the prospects of a global constitutional court tasked with upholding a global constitutional minimum. The two lecturers in the subject bring different bodies of expertise to bear on these challenging issues. Laureate Professor Cheryl Saunders works in the field of global comparative constitutional law; Professor John Tasioulas is a legal philosopher, whose work focuses on international law.

Principal topics will include:

• The forces of internationalisation and globalisation
• Concepts and standards of legitimacy
• Mapping the constitutional systems of the world
• The possibilities of common standards
• Mapping the international legal system
• Constitutional standards and international institutions
• Case study: an International Constitutional Court?

This new subject will consider cutting-edge issues in the law governing the liability of public authorities. Government liability is a field of great practical significance for government and those who interact with government. It also raises difficult issues of theory, lying at the border of public law and private law, and complex policy questions, such as the balance to be struck between interests in individual redress and public interests including the preservation of public finances. The subject will focus on the law of Australia and common law jurisdictions.

The subject will consider significant issues that arise across the major fields of liability. Within the law of torts the course will consider: public authority negligence, including liability for regulatory failure, and of child protection agencies, police and emergency services; misfeasance in public office; malicious prosecution; private and public nuisance; trespassory torts; statutory immunities or defences that provide special protection to public authorities; particular difficulties relating to governments direct and vicarious liability; and issues in the law of damages, including the novel subject of vindicatory damages. Within the law of unjust enrichment, the subject will consider the different grounds on which public authorities can be stripped of unjust gains, and particular issues associated with claims for the return of taxes unlawfully demanded. In the law of contract, the course will consider various special rules that may apply to government contracts including immunities, and will consider the consequences where contracts are entered into without authority. The subject will also consider the history of law reform proposals that seek to make government compensate for ultra vires administrative action, and the role of ex gratia payments.

Principal topics include:

• The law of torts
  • Public authority negligence, including liability for regulatory failure, and of child protection agencies, police and emergency services
  • Misfeasance in public office
  • Malicious prosecution
  • Private and public nuisance
  • Trespassory torts including false imprisonment
  • Vicarious liability of public authorities
  • Statutory immunities and special defences for public authorities
  • Damages awards against public authorities including vindicatory damages
• The law of unjust enrichment
  • Grounds for seeking restitution against public authorities
  • Recovery of unlawfully demanded taxes
  • Special defences for public authorities
• The law of contract
  • Special rules regulating government contracts
  • Consequences of ultra vires contracts
• Compensation beyond private law
  • Law reform proposals for compensation for ultra vires administrative action
  • Ex gratia payments.

This subject will address a selection of the most significant and cutting edge issues in the law governing public administration. Importantly the subject will take a contextual approach, placing administrative law principles in the context of the administrative processes they are designed to regulate, and considering the role of law in the design and working of government administration. It will seek to consider cutting edge issues in administrative law not only through the lens of legal analysis but also from the perspective of public officials, who are the addressees of and must work with administrative law principles. The subject will focus on the law of Australia and other common law jurisdictions.

The subject is divided into three parts. Part one, on decision-making, will address the distinction and interrelationship between discretion and rules, including the use and legal status of government policy and official guidance; administrative procedures, including in terms of e-governance; and the place of good governance values in government rule-making, including values of transparency, accountability and participation. Part two, on judicial-executive relations, will consider government strike-back against judicial decisions, both in the context of judicial review and public authority liability, and the interplay between judicial review and government resource allocation. Part three, on ‘new principles, new challenges’, will critically examine and chart the implications for public administration of emergent doctrines such as proportionality, legitimate expectations and duties of consultation.

The subject will be of interest to lawyers with interests in public law, and of especial interest to lawyers working in or who advise government, and to anyone with an interest in how law frames and operates within public administration.

Principal topics include:

• Administrative decision-making
  • Administrative discretion and rules, with a case study on the use and legal status of administrative policy and guidance
  • Administrative decision-making procedures and the role of legal norms
  • Government rule-making and good governance values including transparency, accountability and participation
• Judicial-government relations
  • Government responses to judicial decisions and the impact of judicial decisions on public administration, with cases studies in judicial review and government liability
  • Judicial review and government resource allocation
• New principles, new challenges
  • Emergent doctrines and their implications for public administration, with case studies on proportionality, legitimate expectations and duties of consultation.

This subject studies the central mechanism for democratic accountability – elections. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach to underscore how this area of law is shaped by normative principles, the political process and practical considerations. The subject will be situated in the context where the dynamic interaction of diverse and powerful actors shapes the design and practice of such law.

The subject also aims to develop amongst students the critical ability to assess the strengths and limitations of the Australian version of electoral democracy. Integral to its aim is the comparative perspective of the subject where the examination of key questions will be informed by international standards and relevant examples from other countries, which may include Canada, India, Indonesia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Principal topics include:

• Why do elections matter? Democratic theories of elections and their critiques
• Which public officials should be elected? The case of judges
• Constitutions, elections and democracy
• What happens during elections? The election campaign, the institutional actors (political parties, third party campaigners, the media, electoral commissions and the courts)
• The voting process (compulsory voting, preferential voting, proportional voting)
• Electoral rights (right to vote, freedom of political association, freedom of political expression)
• The drawing of electoral boundaries
• Regulation of political parties
• Money in electoral politics
• Electoral law-making: the challenge of making democratic electoral laws in a party system
• The role of courts and electoral commissions in electoral law
• International standards in elections: is there a ‘best practice’?
• A case study in the limits of election law: lobbying and its regulation.

This subject examines some persistent legal problems relating to the making and application of law. These include the following:

• What does it mean to speak of a system of binding precedent? What status might (should) foreign precedents have in other jurisdictions?
• Can judges make law? If they do, how is the law that they make different from that which legislatures make?
• Do legislatures have intentions? Are there any limits to what the legislature can enact?
• Should courts be constitutionally entitled to review the legality of laws that legislatures enact? Without this entitlement, what can courts do with those laws?

The subject will cover issues of interest to students from both civil and common law jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• The characteristics of, and differences between, enacted and judge-made law
• The nature and authority of precedent
• Retroactive law
• Judicial review of legislation
• Approaches to statutory interpretation.

Money in politics raises profound challenges for democracies across the world: billion-dollar American presidential elections have led United States being branded the 'best democracy money can buy'; in Indonesia, the tactics of ‘money politics’ are regularly decried; and in Australia, unregulated political spending in federal elections raise concerns about the fairness of such contests.

What should be the role of the law in regulating money in politics? What should be the principles to determine the content and the limits of such law? What should be the respective roles of the legislature, executive and the judiciary in shaping such laws? And what should be the institutional framework for ensuring compliance with legal obligations?

This subject will adopt a cross-national approach to examining these challenging questions. It will examine the experiences of a range of countries including those from the Commonwealth (eg Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom), Europe (eg France and Germany), South-East Asia (eg Indonesia) and the United States. Taught by two leading experts in this field, the subject will draw out the tensions and dilemmas in regulating money in politics.

Principal questions examined include:

• What are the regulatory challenges of money in politics?
• What standards and principles should apply to the regulation of such money? Do these standards and principles vary according to particular national contexts? Is it meaningful to speak of international standards or international ‘best practice’?
• How should political donations and campaign expenditure be regulated?
• How should public funding of campaigns and political parties be provided?
• What should be in the institutional framework governing the regulation of money in politics? Which branch of government should have the power to enact such laws? What institutions (eg electoral commissions; anti-corruption commissions) should be responsible for effectively enforcing such regulation?

Religious minorities in Western democracies are seeking legal accommodations, especially the freedom of maintaining an autonomous judiciary to handle internal family law matters. Drawing on the rich experience of countries where such accommodations were granted, the subject will inquire into the legitimacy and problems associated with such accommodations. In doing so, the subject will draw on modern theories of multiculturalism.

This highly topical subject deals with some of the most significant, challenging and contested issues in the legal systems of the world in the 21st century. It is likely to be of considerable interest to students from a wide range of jurisdictions and backgrounds.

Principal topics include:

• Liberal multiculturalism, theory and practice
• Group accommodations in a democracy
• A survey of religious groups and illiberal practices
• Traditional schemes of religious accommodations, with special reference to the Ottoman millet system
• The reality of religious accommodations in Western democracies
• The reality of religious accommodations in the Middle East, with special reference to Israel.

This topical subject deals with the interface between private law and public law in common law systems from the perspectives of history, doctrine, theory and practice. It will explore the traditional absence of such a division in the common law, and the reasons for this, as a basis for understanding the relevance of the distinction in the contemporary legal system. The subject will critically assess the distinction from a theoretical perspective, testing whether the idea of a distinction between public law and private law can withstand scrutiny. A range of cutting-edge doctrinal issues will be examined and placed in wider context. These include whether public law principles should extend to the activities of non-governmental entities such as private firms and charities; whether the law should recognise a special set of rules to regulate public contracts; whether public authorities should be governed by the ordinary law of tort or a set of special administrative liability principles; procedural divisions between public law and private law; the role of the public interest in private remedies and of private remedies in public law cases; and whether public law issues should be heard by specialist administrative courts. The subject should be of interest to lawyers working in any field in a common law legal system and to those trained in the different traditions of the civil law who are interested in better understanding the structures and assumptions of the common law.

Principal topics are likely to include:

• History of the concept of public law in common law legal systems
• Concepts of public and private
• Implications of a distinction between public law and private law
• Overview of current practice
• Law applicable to non-governmental entities
• Legal framework for public contracts
• Liability of public authorities
• Remedies
• Specialist or generalist courts.

Regulation has become a permanent feature of the way in which contemporary democratic economies, including Australia, are governed. There are few spheres of economic activity that are not subject to some form of regulatory oversight and control. Daily news programs rarely pass without some mention of a significant regulatory decision, proposed regulatory reform or allegations of some regulatory failure or scandal. For lawyers, dealings with regulators and regulatory regimes have become part of the staple diet of their work. Yet the practice of regulation is far from straightforward. Regulatory policy and practice has evolved considerably from its traditional origins in the form of ‘command and control’, accompanied by the growth of specific terminology and concepts that are likely to be unfamiliar to those other than regulatory technocrats. This subject provides an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of, and critically to evaluate, the basic tools, techniques and decision-making methodologies that are employed in regulatory design and practice. It will be of interest to both private and public sector lawyers who practise in regulated sectors of the economy, enhancing their understanding of how regulators go about the business of regulatory decision-making.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction: What is ‘regulation’ and ‘governance’?; the regulatory agency: institutional features, strengths and shortcomings; the rise of the ‘regulatory state’; regulatory regimes and the role of non-state actors
• Tools, techniques and instruments of regulation: command—traditional legal prohibitions backed by sanctions; competition—market based approaches; communication—information disclosure and publicity-based approaches; consensus (including self-regulation); code architecture and the use of ‘nudge’ techniques
• ‘New governance’ approaches to regulation: choice of Instrument; ‘hybrid’ approaches to regulation; responsive regulation, ‘smart regulation’ and its variants (including meta-regulation); cost-benefit analysis and regulatory impact assessment and ‘better regulation’
• Enforcement and compliance: problems with rules; principles-based regulation; the role of the criminal and civil law; punitive civil sanctions (the Macrory Review); regulatory enforcement styles; national styles of regulation; private enforcement, third party monitoring and certification systems
• Appraising Regulation: regulatory accountability; regulatory legitimacy: between democracy and expertise.

Royal commissions and other forms of public inquiries are used by all governments. Inquiries such as the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse are a frequent response by government to a major issue or event. Most Australian governments also have standing bodies with inquisitorial powers. The Federal Government has a variety of standing commissions, such as the Australian Crime Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Nearly every state now has a corruption commission, and several have crime commissions and police integrity bodies, all with coercive investigative powers. Coronial inquests occur in every state and territory. Lawyers advising clients affected by these inquiries require a detailed knowledge of their procedural rules, administrative and constitutional law, procedural fairness, common law privileges and other rights.

This subject is designed to equip students to deal with such inquiries at any level, whether in government departments, the private bars, working as solicitors or in corporate law offices, or as legal advisers to corporations.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to public inquiries
• Appointment and composition
• Supply of information
• Power to compel
• Limits on the power to compel, including public interest immunity, privilege against self-incrimination and privileges of parliament
• Application of administrative law, including procedural fairness and judicial review
• The role of counsel assisting
• Legal representation and assistance
• Contempt
• Reopening of completed inquiries
• Reform.

In the absence of an Australian bill of rights, the separation of powers doctrine is one of the key foundations for the imposition of restrictions on legislative and executive power in Australia.

This subject examines recent developments in the constitutional implications that prevent the conferral of non-judicial functions on federal courts, the conferral of federal judicial power on anyone other than courts, and the related implications concerning the constitution and functions of state courts, including limitations on legislative or executive directions to those courts.

The issues of substantive constitutional law will be examined through the prism of the law and practice that governs constitutional litigation in the High Court. The subject is structured by reference to a hypothetical case study in which participants will be taught to: identify the substantive issues arising from the case study; draft the main kinds of initiating process in the High Court; consider the choices involved in various procedural steps in constitutional litigation; draft submissions addressing those steps; identify the facts necessary to advance the selected constitutional arguments; address in detail, in the course of drafting written submissions and preparing oral submissions, the substantive questions of law that arise from the case study; and write a judgment disposing of the case study.

Principal topics include:

• The meaning of ‘judicial power’
• Aspects of the High Court’s original and appellate jurisdictions
• Separation of powers under the Commonwealth Constitution at the federal level
• The protection of state courts under the Commonwealth Constitution – Kable and cases developing or reformulating the Kable principle; also, Kirk.

States are important, as state-building exercises round the world indicate, yet there are regular suggestions that their significance is waning under pressure from globalisation externally and fragmentation internally.  This subject examines this paradox from an internal perspective, addressing four main questions.

• What do we mean by “state”?
• Why do “states” arise (when they arise)?
• How do they manage to establish themselves?
• What problems do states face, and how do they try to overcome them?

To answer the questions, we have to consider political philosophy, history (including the meaning and purpose of history in state-making), the growth and operation of institutions, empires and decolonisation, the use of coercion in the functioning of states, the roles of constitutions, and the relationship between states on the international plane.  We shall look at ideas of race and nation and their relationships to “state”, and undertake a number of case-studies, touching on Middle Kingdom Egypt through classical Greece and Rome, England since the fourth century CE, Ireland, the USA, Australia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Students will be encouraged to bring their own experiences and insights to the classes to illuminate the discussion.

Principal topics include:

• Ways of understanding the term “state”: language, sociology, history, and the relevance of “nation” and “people”
• Ways of legitimating state power: political theory and morality
• Ways of holding society together: Bryce, Durkheim and Weber
• Ways of establishing states: decolonisation, revolution, secession, international action
• Histories, institutions, values, religions and constitutions.

In the first half of the 20th century most civil actions were for causes of action not much affected by statute: trespass, negligence, libel and slander, breach of contract and the various forms of equitable suit. Most criminal prosecutions were for offences created by statute but whose elements were treated as identified largely by judge-made law. There were great codifying acts; intellectual property acts, facultative acts, and regulatory statutes, but judge-made law was of central and dominating importance. The second half of the 20th century saw the statutory cause of action emerge to prominence, the enactment of laws permitting modification of privately-made agreements, the creation of new rights and obligations and novel forms of criminal offence. Statute became the central and dominating form of regulation of rights and obligations. The proper construction and application of statutes always has been, but now more than ever is, an essential legal skill. This subject seeks to develop and refine those skills.

Principal topics include:

• Construction—a text-based activity but involving more than a dictionary in one hand and the text in the other
• The importance of the constitutional framework and other basic assumptions
• The search for meaning and the metaphor of intention
• The place of Interpretation legislation, including rights Acts
• The canons of construction, their use and abuse ('canons to the right of them; canons to the left of them; on into the valley of death')
• Ambiguity and its resolution, including the use of extrinsic materials
• Inconsistencies, repeals, amendment, consolidation and retrospectivity
• The legislative misfire
• Special rules for special areas
• Rules and regulations—power to make, construction and use in construing the legislation
• Overarching theories and descriptions of the construction process.

Contemporary governments use contracts as a key tool of governance. Outsourcing of public services is commonplace. But should we regulate the use of such tools by means of public administrative law, or through private law, or a mixture of both?  Is there an accountability deficit? What are the advantages and risks of contracting out, and how can and should the law respond?

Professor Janet McLean brings both public law and private law perspectives to bear on the subject of public contracting drawing on Australian, New Zealand and United Kingdom examples.

Principal topics include:

• The distinctive normative bases of private and private law and their implications for government contracts
• The decision to outsource
• The reach of judicial review, freedom of information and human rights law, and financial reporting rules, into the realm of contract law
• Implied terms, procedural requirements and interpretative methods in contract law
• Procurement rules and other internal government guidance
• Public private financing initiatives and other examples of government contracting
• The auditor-general and the role of private auditors.

A properly functioning legal system can be seen as a defining characteristic of modern society. The adversary system can be seen as a defining characteristic of a common law legal system. But as times change, both the common law and the adversary system of trial have changed and will continue to change. What then are the bases of these systems? What corollaries follow from adopting a particular mode of trial? What are the challenges with which the Australian legal system must now deal in resolving disputes? How might those challenges be dealt with and are there implications for what we define as the adversary system and, more generally, the rule of law in a properly functioning legal system?

Principal topics include:

• Development of the common law
• The 20th century adversary system
• The adversary system today and its implications
• Statutes and the common law
• Lessons from other systems
• Complexity – issues, evidence, experts and costs
• Curial method – the law, facts and findings
• Economic and commercial implications – class actions, alternative dispute resolution, arbitration and access to justice
• Legislative and executive power
• Implications for the rule of law and the practitioner.

Constitutions in most countries grant power over external affairs to national (not sub-national) governments and to the political branches (not the courts). However, the allocation of governmental power over external affairs is changing in response to changing conditions. In recent years, executive officials have responded to novel national security threats by appropriating power previously exercised by legislatures. The rapid growth of cross-border activities has given domestic courts a greater role in cases implicating external affairs. The global diffusion of international human rights norms has shifted responsibility for compliance with international legal obligations from national to sub-national governments. The subject will explore these developments. Students interested in the intersection between law and foreign affairs will benefit from this subject.

Professor Sloss is an internationally renowned expert in both United States foreign affairs law and comparative constitutional law.

This subject provides a comparative perspective on the allocation of governmental power over the conduct of external affairs. Subject materials will draw primarily from four countries: Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Principal topics include:

• An overview of constitutional structure in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States
• The division of foreign affairs powers between national and sub-national governments (focusing on Australia, Canada and the United States)
• The division of foreign affairs powers between the legislative and executive branches (focusing on the four main countries, plus Israel)
• The role of the judiciary in cases implicating both external affairs and individual rights (focusing on the four main countries, plus South Africa)
• The scope of immunity granted to foreign sovereigns in the domestic courts of other states (focusing on the four main countries, plus New Zealand).

This highly topical subject analyses the rights of Indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. Topics discussed include Aboriginal title and the doctrine of discovery, treaties, land and resource rights, self-determination, and Indigenous families and justice. The subject will be taught from a critical perspective, comparing and assessing the treatment of Indigenous rights in the four jurisdictions. In exploring these issues, the subject will also examine aspects of legal pluralism, and assess a variety of normative and political justifications for Indigenous rights.

Principal topics include:

• History of the concept of Aboriginal title and the doctrine of discovery
• Concepts of sui generis agreement-making between Indigenous peoples and governments
• Implications of distinctions between government obligations and Indigenous rights
• Overview of current practice
• Law applicable to Indigenous entities
• Legal framework for Indigenous governance
• Human rights and their influence on Indigenous rights
• Remedies.

Constitutional Law in Practice focuses principally, but not solely, on the litigation of constitutional matters in the High Court of Australia. In recent years, the High Court has been very active in the constitutional arena, and it is important to understand not only the substance of the issues the Court has dealt with but also how constitutional cases come before the High Court (and other courts), the process by which they are heard and decided and the relief that can be granted. In addition, constitutional law arises in practice in non-litigious settings, in particular in the provision of advice to government (both from government lawyers and from independent practitioners). This subject aims to critically evaluate the practice of constitutional law and to build key skills, such as written and oral advocacy. To that end, the assessment takes the form of preparation and presentation of both the written and oral aspects of an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court. The subject will also involve presentations from leading constitutional law academics and from practitioners who appear regularly in the High Court.

Principal topics will include:

• Initiating a constitutional case
• Bases of jurisdiction
• Remedies
• Applications for special leave
• Written submissions
• Oral argument
• Use of comparative and international materials
• Interpretation and overruling
• Interventions and amicus curiae
• Consequences of invalidity
• The case studies will be based on recent major constitutional litigation before the High Court. Issues to which attention will be paid in relation to each case study include:
  − The basis of the decision to litigate
  − Any impediments to litigation
  − The jurisdiction of the High Court, including the need for special leave
  − Standing
  − Justiciability
  − The choice of remedy or remedies
  − Forensic strategy
  − Methodology of the High Court, as revealed by decision
  − Reflection on the nature of judicial review.

This subject responds to the increasingly globalised nature of constitutional law by examining significant constitutional questions that recur across various legal systems.

Comparative study of constitutions provides a deeper, more systematic understanding of constitutional law and governance. In particular, it provides opportunities to discover that aspects of one system are not necessarily replicated elsewhere.

The subject will enrich students’ understanding of the constitution with which they are most familiar. It is of practical significance for scholars, advocates and for those involved in the formation and implementation of public law policy and reform.

Principal topics will include:

• Legislative powers over inter-State trade and taxation
• Resolving conflicts within federations
• Proportionality and other methods of judicial reasoning
• The nature of constitutional rights.

Key decisions of the High Court of Australia will be examined. The principal comparator jurisdictions include Canada, the United States, Germany, South Africa and some European jurisdictions.

This subject seeks to provide an overview of the theory and practice of constitutionalism in four countries in South and South East Asia: India, Indonesia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. Two of these are among the largest, most pluralistic nations in the world, while the remaining two are small island states. All four nations experienced long periods of colonial rule, which continues to have a decisive impact on their post-colonial legal and constitutional orders. The experience of colonialism contrasts quite starkly from those nations which were settler colonies, and this is an important focus of the course. In each of these nations, discussions about constitutionalism have become enmeshed within larger societal debates about economic development, cultural values, and human rights. The subject instructor has first-hand experience of research and teaching constitutional law in two of the four jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• Brief overview of the field of comparative constitutionalism, and methodological approaches to the discipline
• A broad introduction to the four jurisdictions, covering national histories, and their economic, social and political dimensions
• A focus on the colonial experience in the four jurisdictions and the nature of the colonial economy, and its politics
• The process of decolonization and the constitutional politics that was engendered as a result
• An examination of the post-colonial Constitutions adopted in these countries, with an emphasis on rights provisions
• Broad overview of post-colonial trajectories of the four jurisdictions, and their assessments by scholars
• The policies of economic development that were followed and the impact on constitutional politics
• Debates about culture, human rights and ‘Asian Values’.

Protecting the integrity of sport from doping and match-fixing has become a high profile cause, especially with growing concern over links to illegal gambling, money laundering (estimated at US$130 billion through sports betting) and organised crime. Yet perhaps an even greater threat to the integrity and reputation of sport is to be found away from the fields of play. Corruption in the board rooms and administrative offices of the bodies charged with bringing leadership and good governance to world sport threatens to undermine the willingness of national governments, broadcasters and sponsors to provide essential support and serves to disillusion athletes and fans.

Corruption in International Sport explores the murky realm of ‘institutional or off-field corruption’. By comparison with anti-doping and anti-match fixing, off-field corruption has been lightly regulated and controlled. This subject will investigate the major scandals and the legal and regulatory responses of both international sports bodies and national governmental authorities. With an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the international legal order applying to corruption in sport, students will be in a position to contribute to debate and regulatory development concerning this important issue.

The lecturers share extensive knowledge in sports integrity and will bring international and national perspectives to the subject matter.

Principal topics include:

• Nature and incidence of corruption in international sport with particular attention to the allocation of event hosting rights, commercial dealings, governance and links between doping, match-fixing and sports betting
• The role and nature of international and national laws against bribery and corruption including jurisdictional issues and the realtionship between such laws
• Anti-corruption standards and measures in international sports bodies
• Regulatory measures of sports bodies to address corruption in the awarding of event hosting and other commercial rights
• Ethical standards in the governance of sports bodies including protocols for transparency
• The mechanisms of investigation and prosecution of corrupt activity including information-sharing between sports and relevant government authorities
• The role of independent, private monitoring agencies and pressure groups such as the news media and Transparency International.

What is the relationship between human rights and just criminal sentencing? Does the level of imprisonment reflect something significant about the character of a society? The world’s population of incarcerated people has increased dramatically in recent decades. Mass incarceration, sentencing policies and excessive punishment have become serious issues in the United States and many other nations, while the reliability and fairness of the criminal justice system have been questioned. This subject will examine the costs of modern trends towards increased use of incarceration and the impact of these policies on vulnerable populations like juveniles, the mentally disabled, racial minorities and the poor. In this subject, the rule of law surrounding crime and punishment is explored through a human rights frame with attention to reform strategies and the way forward.

Principal topics will include:

• Sentencing policy
• Mass incarceration and excessive punishment
• The impact of current policies on the poor and vulnerable
• Reform law and litigation strategies
• The intersection of human rights and criminal law

The proper role to be played by labour standards and human rights in the construction of the international economic order, and in the development process, is an intricate issue and a matter of controversy. This subject examines the relationship between (economic) development and labour law – exploring the place of rights within both investment and trade-led development models, and the contrasting social justice-based developmental approaches.

In investigating the role of labour law in development, this subject interrogates the rationales, content, institutions and regulatory frameworks relating to labour standards and human rights at regional and international levels. This entails not only a technical analysis of transnational instruments and supervisory structures but also detailed consideration of underlying political and economic concerns. Such regulatory frameworks for labour that have prevailed in the global ‘North’ have been the basis of transplantation and experimentation in the 'South', and might obscure the actual characteristics of labour relations in the ‘South’. The subject examines the redefinition of labour law, paying close attention to North-South relations in the regulation of labour; to the relationship between labour rights and human rights; and to the limits of rights discourse.

Attention will be given to various case studies. Illustrative topics include:

• Introduction: Re-imagining labour law for development
• Labour and the turn to human rights discourse
• The changing nature of work: informalisation, ‘precariatisation’, and the rise in low quality work
• Defining labour in the global North and the global South: Unpaid labour, family employment and care work
• Setting, supervising and enforcing international labour standards
• ‘Core’ labour rights and the International Labour Organisation
• Development, free trade and labour rights: socio-economic rights as a condition of international trade
• Competing regimes and norms on migrant labour
• The regional and sub-regional dimension: the European Union, the African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
• Labour dimensions of codes of conduct, social labelling and investor initiatives: effectiveness and legitimacy
• ‘Post-industrial’ labour law in the global North and South: Alternative models of social protection and social justice, Universal Basic Income and employment guarantees

With the rise of globalisation, the boundary separating domestic law from international law has become increasingly permeable. Consequently, states are making greater use of international law to regulate activity that was previously regulated exclusively at the domestic level. Additionally, modern international law has developed a growing emphasis on protecting the rights of private parties in areas as diverse as international human rights, transnational child custody disputes, and cross-border commercial transactions. As a consequence, domestic courts are playing an increasingly prominent role in the application and enforcement of international law.

This subject provides an overview of the crucial role domestic courts play in the implementation and enforcement of various international legal regimes. Principal topics include:

• A conceptual framework about the role of domestic courts in applying international law. This framework emphasizes the distinction between monist and dualist legal systems, also the distinction among horizontal, vertical, and transnational legal obligations.
• The judicial decisions by domestic courts from various countries in cases where defendants raised a foreign sovereign immunity defense
• The judicial decisions by domestic courts from various countries in cases involving the extraterritorial application of domestic statutes
• The role of domestic courts in implementing three different treaty regimes that regulate transnational relationships among private parties
• The Convention on the International Sale of Goods
• The Montreal Convention for International Carriage by Air
• The Hague Convention on International Child Abduction
• The role of domestic courts in implementing three different treaty regimes that regulate vertical relationships between states and private parties (vertical treaty regimes)
• The Convention on the Status of Refugees (and associated Protocol)
• The Geneva Conventions on the laws of war
• The Convention Against Torture.

At the end of the subject, we will revisit the conceptual framework, and consider the variation in behaviour by domestic judges confronted with claims based on different types of international legal regimes.

Throughout Asia the treatment of drug offences varies, although many countries retain the death penalty. Students will be asked to critically evaluate drug law, criminal procedure law and penalties in Asian jurisdictions selected from (but not limited to) China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

The subject’s approach is explicitly socio-legal. Students will interrogate regional primary sources and then investigate how the laws operate in practice, drawing upon identified practice and current research. There will be a strong emphasis on case studies of important judicial decisions from the countries selected. This subject is also comparative, asking students to incorporate and defend a comparative approach to their analysis.

The first part of the subject will be an introduction to relevant international regimes and the national regulatory and institutional frameworks for drugs law in each of the countries selected. The second part of the subject will comprise a series of studies of significant and/or high-profile case studies from the countries selected, in which the practical application of the regimes examined in the first half are investigated. A comparative approach will be applied throughout.

Principal topics include:

• Key approaches to socio-legal comparative legal studies in the 21st century
• Diverse approaches within Asia to the regulation of drugs, through detailed and nuanced examination of the relevant criminal and procedure laws, taking into account different legal systems, social, political and cultural traditions, structures and practices
• The role played by different legal institutions in the regulation of drugs offences regionally, including courts, police, prosecutors, defence lawyers, NGOS etc.
• The contribution made to the regulation of drugs and drugs-related offences by international regulatory frameworks
• The impacts of non-legal networks and institutions on the development, implementation and review of drugs laws in the region
• Divergent attitudes to the death penalty
• Drugs-law-related reforms arising from the comparisons
• The possibilities for convergence or harmonisation of drugs law in Asia.

International human rights law encompasses two sets of rights – the traditional civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights. The latter group include the rights to food, health, housing and education, as well as labour rights. It is commonly suggested that widespread governmental neglect of these rights in many states has contributed significantly to the rise of populist politicians promising to upend the existing order and revive the fortunes of the increasingly marginalised middle class. Social rights might thus represent a crucial new frontier for mainstream human rights advocacy, as an antidote to neoliberalism and a response to the demand, including in the global South, for an approach to human rights that meaningfully addresses the most pressing needs of the majority.

In practice, however, the status of social rights, as human rights, is deeply confusing. China and many of its allies claim that these are by far the most important human rights, but their policy prescriptions focus largely on economic growth. In many other countries, social rights have achieved broad constitutional recognition and are considered justiciable, but judicial enforcement is limited and problematic. Social rights are prominent on the international human rights agenda, but with little to show for it, and they remain conspicuously marginal in the activities of the world’s leading human rights NGOs.

Principal topics include:

• The need to reconceptualise social rights
• A focus on the necessary economic, fiscal, and financial policies
• A review of attitudes to social rights in Australia and of their relevance in light of a longstanding antipathy to the acceptance of international human rights obligations in domestic law
• The future of the welfare state
• The UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Proposals for a universal basic income, and for social protection floors.

Do judges make law? If they do, how is the law that they make different from that which legislatures make? Do legislatures have intentions? In legal systems that subscribe to the principle of legislative supremacy, are there any limits to what the legislature can enact? Is it better that courts be constitutionally entitled to review the legality of laws that legislatures enact? Absent this entitlement, what can courts do with those laws? This course has students consider these questions by examining the law-making functions of legislatures and courts, idea of legislative intent, the concepts of legislative supremacy and judicial review, the concept of ex post facto law and the core principles of statutory construction.

Principal topics will include:

• Enacted and judge-made law
• Legislative intent and supremacy
• Ex post facto law
• Judicial review of legislation
• Statutory interpretation.

Adequate, reliable and sustainable supplies of energy are crucial to modern societies, and their assurance demands the close and continuous involvement of governments. This subject explains the challenges—affordability, security of supply, safety, control of monopoly, sustainability in an age of global warming—that the economic and technical characteristics of different energy sources present to governments in Australia, and analyses the regulatory tools that they have at their disposal for responding to such challenges. It shows how the law can function both as an essential vehicle for such regulation and as a constraint on its content. The lecturer is a leading international authority on oil and gas law and has published extensively in the field of regulation.

Principal topics include:

• The nature of regulation, its development in Australia and its relationship with law
• General explanations and justifications for regulation
• The techniques of regulation
• Regulatory issues posed by the supply of different types of energy:
  • Mineral energies: coal, petroleum and uranium
  • Network energies: electricity, gas
  • Renewable energies
• The Australian federal environment for energy regulation. Two or more case studies of Australian energy regulation:
  • Electricity and gas: from state monopolies to regulated national markets
  • Mined energies: securing effective exploitation, managing resource conflicts
  • Renewable energies: regulatory incentives
• Cross-cutting issues in energy regulation:
  • Regulatory authorities
  • Forms of regulation: prescription versus goal-based regulation; discretion versus rules; legislation versus contract
  • Regulatory review and evaluation.

Environmental protection is one of the central policy issues in the world today. Approaches to protecting the environment vary widely, as do perspectives about the efficacy of such approaches. This subject provides an advanced inquiry into environmental regulation with a special focus on compliance issues. The subject includes review of critical strategies that are in use throughout the world to promote environmental protection, including market-based approaches, regulatory approaches, common law approaches and information-based approaches. The subject also reviews key legal and policy issues that relate to promoting compliance with environmental requirements including, for example, different theories for promoting compliance (deterrence-based, cooperation-based, hybrid approaches, etc). In addition, the subject explores important authorities for government and citizen enforcement, including litigation and the types of authorities that enhance government and citizens’ capacity to enforce effectively. As well, the subject assesses the role of international institutions in promoting effective enforcement.

The lecturer in this subject has received multiple honors for his academic scholarship. In addition, he has extensive practical experience in international governance as well as service as a federal and state official. The lecturer served as Director of the NAFTA Commission’s Citizen Petitions Process, and as an enforcement official in the United States with the US Department of Justice, US Environmental Protection Agency and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

This subject provides a critical assessment of contemporary approaches to environmental regulation, with a specific focus on environmental compliance.

Principal topics include:

• Review of strategies available to promote environmental protection
• Examination of theoretical approaches to promoting environmental compliance
• Assessment of important legal authorities for effective environmental compliance, including consideration of citizens’ enforcement
• Review of the possible role that international institutions may play in improving domestic environmental compliance.

Environmental law deals with some of the most vital but also highly controversial issues within Australia and the global society. Environmental issues are a prominent feature of public debate, scientific research and regulatory action and this subject canvasses how law has evolved in response to such challenges, as well as identifying where reform may be required. The subject equips students with a strong grounding in the foundational principles of environmental law in Australia by reference to the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999, as well as relevant pollution control and biodiversity legislation. In addition, it provides an introduction to international environmental law dealing with questions such as trans-boundary harm and World Heritage protection, as well as considering how international influences have shaped the direction of Australian environmental law.

This subject will provide an examination of the development and current scope of Australian environmental law, with a focus on the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) and related state environmental protection legislation.

Principal topics include:

• The growing importance of international law, with the recognition that environmental protection issues cross regulatory boundaries
• Greater integration between relevant discipline areas concerned with environmental protection
• Greater diversity in environmental law approaches, including integration with other regulatory areas such as planning, natural resource management, water use and indigenous land management, and financial measures and economic instruments.

These themes will be illustrated by case studies in the following areas:

• Environmental law: The drivers of change
• Environmental actors, including public interest litigation
• The range of legal and regulatory tools deployed in environmental law, including consideration of market mechanisms
• The interaction of law and science, with a focus on the precautionary principle
• Integration and complexity challenges in implementing environmental law with a focus on biodiversity protection
• International law trends, including trade and environment and climate change governance.

With policy and law-makers under pressure to subordinate environmental concerns to short-term economic imperatives, environmental advocates are increasingly looking to human rights as a means of reinforcing the importance of environmental protection to human welfare. Domestic, regional and international human rights laws present a range of opportunities and challenges for addressing harms done to the environment.  There are also a number of conceptual concerns with framing environmental issues in terms of human rights.  Students will work as a class and in small groups to understand the relationship between human rights law and environmental protection at domestic, regional and international levels. The subject will provide insight into strategic aspects of human rights advocacy for the environment, using case studies to explore the roles of state and non-state actors in environmental protection and to consider a range of approaches in the different regions of the world.  Resources drawing from academic, policy and advocacy material will be used to interrogate practical and critical perspectives on human rights law and environmental protection.

Principal topics include:

• The relationship between human rights and the environment in theory and practice
• Human rights that protect the environment, including general rights such as the rights to privacy, health and to information as well as specific rights ‘to’ and ‘of’ the environment
• Domestic, regional and international governance of human rights in relation to the environment
• Sustainable development and its relevance to issues of human rights and the environment in the different regions of the world
• The implications of human rights law for indigenous peoples and environmental protection
• The roles and responsibilities of non-state actors in relation to ‘environmental rights’, including environmental advocates and businesses
• Channels for redress beyond formal legal mechanisms for people and for ‘nature’.

Freedom of Information (FOI) laws have been introduced in over 90 countries around the world to date, with most of these being introduced in recent years. The right to information is increasingly recognised at both domestic constitutional level and by international human rights tribunals. At the same time, FOI is experiencing considerable challenges in terms of the balancing of access rights against other important societal values, such as the protection of privacy, law enforcement and the protection of national security. Here in Australia, the FOI landscape has undergone significant change in recent years. This subject explores the way in which the tension between access and other interests is being negotiated in the new Australian FOI regime. It offers insights from other jurisdictions, both domestic and international. The lecturer brings to this subject a wealth of experience of writing, lecturing and advising on FOI matters in various parts of the world.

Principal topics will include:

• Background to the development of access legislation
• Access to information: The theoretical framework
• The human rights dimension of access to public information
• Reuse of government information
• National regimes on access
• Comparative approaches
• Defining the ‘public interest‘.

Gambling is one of the most heavily regulated industry sectors in Australian society, yet is a leisure activity enjoyed by many Australians. This subject will provide background to the manner in which it is regulated in Australia, and internationally, and provide guidance on the challenges facing the sector and how it may be regulated in the future. The subject will also address emerging issues affecting the gambling sector, including the impact of new technologies and the globalisation of the industry.

The two lecturers are leaders in the field. Jamie Nettleton is recognised internationally as a leading expert in legal issues relating to the gambling industry and advises all categories of operators within the gambling industry. Professor Rose is an internationally recognised scholar in the area with more than 1,500 published works and as a public speaker, often the keynote speaker on gambling issues.

Principal topics include:

• What is gambling?
• The regulation of the Australian gambling sector
• The policy, business and legal challenges posed to the success of the Australian gambling sector, both within Australia and from international sources
• The best compliance model for the regulation of the sector.

This subject is a collaborative effort to reflect on, critique, appreciate, and learn about international advocacy that responds to global injustice using a human rights framework.  It provides a map of the field of international human rights advocacy—its dominant forms of action, strategies, and range of methods—and introduces students to the core elements and skills involved in that work, including the collection of evidence of human rights abuses; interviewing witnesses, governments and other potential opponents; report writing; media work; advocacy strategies; quantitative and qualitative methods; litigation; and measuring effectiveness.  The subject also introduces the ethical principles and professional rules related to human rights lawyering. It addresses the obstacles to effective global justice and human rights work, and the technical, procedural, and substantive problems with the manner in which advocates investigate abuses, seek accountability, and conduct advocacy. Teaching materials are drawn from a diverse range of fields and interdisciplinary sources including law, medicine, psychology, political science, social theory, critical theory, toolkits and how-to-guides, stories, video, podcasts, human rights reports, and witness testimony.  The success of the subject depends, to a great extent, on the active, engaged, and critical participation of students. The subject will be of interest to students whose work already intersects with human rights directly or to students who wish to explore ways to further inject human rights into their work. It is designed to be of relevance to students whether they are working within Australia, other countries or at the international level.

The subject will examine human rights law and institutions; ethics for human rights lawyers; crafting strategy; fact-finding (including interviewing, documentation, open source investigations, and quantitative and qualitative research methods); and advocacy methods (including reporting, campaigning, messaging, and litigating).

The applicability and relevance of human rights to armed conflict has become one of the most debated issues surrounding the use of violence internationally and domestically. Traditionally, human rights law and the law of armed conflict were seen to be complementary but also largely incompatible. Yet both have been converging with the laws of war being increasingly ‘humanised’ and human rights increasingly ‘militarised.’ What is involved in this cross-fertilisation? Might it have unintended consequences? For example, some human rights activists have supported war ‘in the name of human rights,’ while many human rights NGOs have considered issues relating to the laws of war to be outside their remit. Does this mean human rights support war? When it comes to the regulation of armed conflict, the laws of war are widely held to be the applicable ‘lex specialis’ in armed conflict, as opposed to human rights. What does it mean for the laws of war to displace human rights as the regime of choice to regulate certain types of violence? Is it a triumph of humanitarianism or of violence?

Principal topics include:

• To what extent have human rights featured in justifications of resorting to violence within and across boundaries? What is the relevance of notions such as ‘the responsibility to protect,’ ‘human security,’ ‘the human right to security’ or ‘protection of civilians’ in building a new global regime of violence?
• What is an armed conflict? How does it displace the normal applicability of human rights provisions? How does the changing nature of armed conflicts justify changes in normative emphasis?
• What is the existing jurisprudence on the applicability of human rights to armed conflict, with particular emphasis on relevant case law of the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights?
• How and when do human rights apply extra-territorially? The subject will look at issues arising from military attack, occupation, detention, handover of prisoners, rendition, etc.
• How might human rights help address differently issues of (i) gendered violence, (ii) new weapons such as drones, or (iii) targeted assassinations?
• Should non-state actors be recognised as a greater power to engage in violence and if so in exchange for what?
• Which actors are legitimised by the laws of war or human rights and how do modes of intervention in armed conflict differ?
• How might the emphasis on human rights change the focus of accountability?
• Do international organisations engaging in violence have human rights obligations? What military deployments fall short of belligerency?

Since 11 September 2001, there has been a global trend towards enacting new laws and adopting new measures against terrorism, reflected in developments on the national, regional and international levels. Many such counter-terrorism laws and measures have raised questions about the nature of human rights law, and the extent of its adaptability in face of security imperatives. Others have revealed clear human rights violations and exposed the fragility of respect for the rule of law. Responses by the courts and international mechanisms have had a role to play in redressing this reality in various ways, but they too have met challenges. This subject addresses the international law framework within which responses to terrorism, and to counter-terrorism, unfold. It considers human rights law in the context of other relevant areas of international law and practice, such as humanitarian law and the law on peace and security. It examines legal questions not in abstract but by reference to examples from practice, and in light of the many real-life challenges to giving effect to the law in the security context today. It provides a stock-taking review and questions the human rights implications of global counter-terrorism practice.

Principal topics include:

• What is ‘terrorism’ and how does it fit within the framework of international law?
• Do terrorists violate human rights, and can they be held accountable?
• Which human rights are affected by counter-terrorism measures by states and how they are affected in practice?
• Is the prohibition against torture absolute, and what have been the challenges in practice since 9/11?
• How has the criminal law adjusted, and expanded, in recent years and what are the implications?
• Have restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly been legitimate?
• How has terrorist listing and sanctions against individuals and entities developed and what human rights issues arise?
• What implications are there for refugee and immigration law in the era of terrorism?
• What is the phenomenon of ‘foreign terrorist fighters’ and legal responses to it?
• How has the right to privacy been eroded in the name of countering terrorism, and when is surveillance lawful?
• What are strategic approaches to preventing and combating terrorism, and what are the long –term implications of trends in counter-terrorism practice to date?

This subject considers whether and to what extent international human rights law applies to the actions of states outside their sovereign territories. The focus is on international law only, not domestic law.

The extra-territorial application of international human rights law is one of the most contested and fast-moving areas of human rights law today. It is concerned with important and high-profile activities performed by states outside their borders, from war to occupation and anti-piracy and migration-related activities. This relatively under-explored area of law is of considerable current interest to governments (including their armed forces), international organisations and human rights non-government organisations (NGOs).

Principal topics include:

• The nature and scope of extra-territorial State activity, from war to occupation, the interception and detention of migrants and ‘pirates’, and the operation of embassies, military bases and detention facilities
• The main contours of international human rights law
• Relevant principles of general international law, including treaty interpretation, and relevant features of human rights law, including applicability in times of war and occupation, and co-application with other areas of law
• Arguments of principle in favour of and against applicability, including concerns about ‘legal black holes’, indirect nationality discrimination, abuses of detainees, double standards and ‘human rights imperialism’
• The main treaty provisions on applicability, including ‘jurisdiction’ and colonial extension clauses
• Key general features of extra-territorial applicability, including the substantive meaning of human rights law extra-territorially, and the relevance to this of self-determination; the possibility of activating ‘derogation’ clauses; and whether human rights treaties can and should apply to the actions of contracting states in the territories of other states not also parties to the same treaties
• The meaning of the two ‘jurisdiction’ triggers for extra-territorial applicability, based on the exercise of control over territory or individuals
• The extra-territorial application of other human rights treaties that use different triggers, notably the anti-discrimination treaties and the 1951 Refugee Convention
• The application and significance of the non-refoulement obligation extra-territorially.

In the past two decades, indigenous peoples have become increasingly prominent players in international law. Indigenous rights are now part of the mainstream body of international human rights law – comprehensively articulated in the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007. They also form part of the mandate of a number of UN agencies, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Bank and the UN human rights bodies, and are directly supervised by indigenous experts within the UN system via the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Human Rights Council’s Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These mechanisms increasingly provide leverage for indigenous claims in domestic law, and require governments to have regard to indigenous rights when making decisions affecting their interests. This subject explores the practice and theory of indigenous rights in international law and considers their influence on the domestic law and policy of Australia and other settler states. It addresses the distinctive qualities of indigenous rights and focuses especially on the central importance of collective indigenous rights to self-determination, culture and territory. This subject is co-taught by indigenous law experts Dr McMillan (Wiradjuri nation) and Associate Professor Gover.

Principal topics include:

• The history and current status of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007
• The role and work of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
• The work and impact of UN Special Rapporteurs
• The development of general human rights norms in their application to indigenous peoples by the human rights treaty bodies, particularly the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• The development of ILO standards and the impact of its work domestically
• The extent to which Australian governments have incorporated international human rights into policy approaches in relation to Indigenous affairs
• The work of the Social Justice Commissioner in utilising human rights law and values in the Australian context
• Examination of comparative developments using examples such as the United States, Canada and New Zealand.

Human rights are a dominant but highly contested feature of ethical, political and legal thinking in the era ushered in by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. This subject explores the many pressing questions raised by these rights from the point of view of contemporary moral, political and legal philosophy.

• Are human rights triggers for intervention or benchmarks of state legitimacy?
• Are they based on dignity, interests or some other value?
• How do we determine who has human rights and who bears the associated duties?
• Can human rights conflict with other values and how should such conflicts be resolved?
• Are human rights compatible with cultural pluralism?
• How should human rights be legalised?
• Is international human rights law legitimate in light of the claims of state sovereignty?
• How is the content of international human rights law to be determined?
• How should we reform or implement this law?

Principal topics include:

• The nature of human rights: moral, legal, political?
• The grounds of human rights: interests, dignity, God
• The subjects of human rights and the bearers of associated duties
• Conflicts involving human rights and their relations to the common good
• Human rights and cultural pluralism
• The legalisation of human rights
• The legitimacy of international human rights law
• Sources of international human rights law
• Reforming international human rights law
• Jus cogens, intervention and punishment.

Following a five year inquiry and the 2017 release of the report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse after, the issue of child sexual abuse in institutional settings gained extensive attention from the public, political representatives and legal commentators. The inquiry contributed to new understandings of the incidence and extent of physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse in a range of institutional settings, including schools, hospitals, churches, sporting organisations, foster homes and other accommodation services. The debate on how the law may best respond to the abuse continues, with judicial attention to the current law, and political attention to law reform. There are many challenging issues associated with the legal redress of child abuse, including time limits for claims, liability for the criminal acts of others, the onus of proof, and the appropriate compensation regime.

This subject examines the background to and current understandings of child abuse in institutional settings, the relevant tort law in Australia (with international comparisons) and the challenges of its application to these situations, recent and proposed tort law reforms, and the new Australian ‘Redress Scheme’.

Bill Madden is a lawyer specialising in injury compensation including intentional torts and the overlays provided by statutory reform and statutory schemes. He is a regular writer and presenter on tort law topics.

Principal topics include:

• The challenges of historical abuse
• Findings from the Royal Commission and other inquiries
• Liability of the perpetrator – the legal framework
• Liability of the institution – the onus of proof, criminal acts, vicarious liability and non-delegable duty
• The significance of mandatory reporting of abuse
• Tort law reforms – limitations, the onus of proof and legal structures
• Redress schemes, framework, boundaries and fairness
• Future reforms.

Equality and discrimination law is continuing to increase in importance, but remains controversial. This subject examines international and comparative aspects of equality and discrimination law. The subject is not confined to, but will include a focus on labour and employment issues. Equality and discrimination issues will be examined at four levels: international law, transnational, state constitutional law, and state human rights law. A review of the content and operation of the major United Nations (UN) and International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions relevant to discrimination generally and to equality at work is directly relevant to Australian domestic law as these treaties provide a constitutional basis as well as content for much Australian anti-discrimination legislation. For comparison, an overview of the European Union (EU) system for regulating discrimination law will be included. The focus then shifts to comparative national law, with an examination of protection of equality and discrimination rights at constitutional and legislative levels in Australia and other countries that take different approaches: some or all of Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

This subject provides a critical examination of the scope and operation of equality and discrimination law at international, transnational and national levels and utilises comparative doctrinal and policy analysis. While the major focus will be on work and employment, other areas will be considered where they cast light on the development of the law.

Principal topics include:

• An introduction to the different roles played by equality and discrimination at different locations and levels of the legal system
• Consideration of debates about the meaning of equality, discrimination and other contested concepts such as choice and responsibility
• Analysis of the roles, framework and key features of international treaties and conventions relating to equality and discrimination in both general (human rights) and specific (ILO) contexts
• Analysis of some of the key EU equality directives and their adoption in some Member States
• An analysis of constitutional protection of equality rights in countries with different modes of protection, chosen from Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States
• An examination of anti-discrimination and equality laws across several countries to contrast different approaches and conceptualisations of these rights, and also different social environments and barriers to achieving a more equal society
• Consideration of the role(s) of law in relation to equality and discrimination, and the uneven progress in the countries analysed
• Exploration of possible future directions for better protection of equality and discrimination rights.

The field of international human rights law is today composed of a multitude of legal instruments, implementation bodies, special procedures, human rights NGOs and transitional justice mechanisms. This subject provides the opportunity to examine this field in many of its dimensions, equipping students to navigate the system and critically assess its fundamental features. It will be of interest to all students who want to develop a detailed understanding of how the international human rights law system operates, including those with limited or no background in the area. The two lecturers have significant experience across a diverse range of topics and issues within international human rights law, which they draw upon to create an engaging and thought-provoking subject.

Principal topics include:

• Human rights and the challenges posed by state sovereignty and national security
• The contested universality of human rights
• The international institutional framework for the protection of human rights, with a special focus on the Human Rights Council and treaty monitoring system
• The interpretation and application of selected rights from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
• Domestic measures for the implementation of human rights, such as judicial implementation of economic, social and cultural rights
• The norm of non-discrimination as it relates to race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity
• The contribution of truth and reconciliation commissions to the protection of human rights
• Human rights law relating to refugees and asylum-seekers
• The challenges posed by economic globalisation.

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Issues concerning children, whether they arise at the international, regional or local level, are increasingly being examined from a human rights perspective. Much of the momentum for this movement has been generated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, and has been ratified by every state in the world except the United States and South Sudan. This subject is designed to provide students with an understanding of the CRC and the idea of a human rights-based approach to matters involving children. It will be of interest to anyone who works in areas that impact on children, either directly or indirectly, at the international, regional or local level. The lecturer has extensive networks with civil society, international bodies and government agencies that he draws on to provide an appropriate blend of academic and practical content.

The subject consists of two parts. Part one involves a general discussion of:

• The notion of children’s rights
• The international framework for the protection of children’s rights, with particular emphasis on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
• The factors that impact on the implementation of the Convention, both in Australia and overseas.

Part two involves an examination of specific issues relevant to children and how the Convention and a rights-based analysis can be used to respond to these issues. The issues will be drawn from areas such as:

• Sexual exploitation, including trafficking, prostitution and pornography
• Child labour
• Juvenile justice
• Child refugees
• Violence against children
• Children in armed conflict
• HIV/AIDS and children
• Child poverty and homelessness.

The course will examine the ways in which 'political' arguments and considerations intrude in the various fields of public international law and are then translated into legal doctrines and principles in legal practice. It will thus offer a contextual reading of the role of international law – use of force, human rights, international criminal law, international economic law – in the struggle for the adoption of spiritual and material values in the world

Principal topics include:

• A brief contextual history of the 'rise' of modern international law (1870-2000)
• An analysis of the structure of international legal argument
• A study of history and structure in the following fields:
  • Sovereignty
  • Sources of international law
  • Use of force
  • Human rights
  • International criminal law
  • International investment law 
  • International environmental law.

International migration is a topic of ever-increasing interest as a result of globalisation of labour markets and demographic pressures in sending and receiving states. This subject analyses the framework of international law that regulates the flow of people across international borders as regular or irregular migrants. It also equips students to understand the human rights of migrants who live or work in countries outside the state of their nationality. The subject aims to give students a broad understanding of connections between relevant legal frameworks rather than detailed knowledge of specialised regimes, and it is not a course in domestic migration law. The subject draws on a mix of international and Australian case studies, which befits Australia’s position as a major migrant-receiving country for over 60 years.

Principal topics include:

• Contemporary patterns of international migration
• Nationality and statelessness
• Regulating entry of persons
• Regulating exit of persons
• Refugees and asylum-seekers
• International labour migration
• International human rights of migrants
• Human trafficking and smuggling
• Emerging migration issues (eg environmental migration).

This subject explores and examines the international legal regime for the protection of refugees. The essential premise of the subject is that refugee law should be understood as a mode of human rights protection, the viability of which requires striking a balance between the needs of the victims of human rights abuse and the legitimate aspirations of the countries to which they flee. The primary objective of the subject is to enable students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the international legal regime for international protection – the basis for being granted protection in 147 countries, including Australia. The subject will situate Australian refugee law and policy within the context of Australia’s international obligations.

Principal topics include:

• History of the international system of refugee protection
• Legal and institutional framework of international legal protection
• The implementation of the Refugee Convention in Australian law
• Refugee status determination: domestic and international dimensions
• Responsibility sharing and shifting
• Principles of treaty interpretation applied to refugee law
• The definition of ‘refugee’ in international law
• Exclusion from refugee protection.

This workshop-style subject affords students the opportunity for both conceptual analysis and hands-on application of internationally guaranteed refugee rights.

The first part of the subject addresses the way in which rights are allocated under the Refugee Convention, and the interrelationship between refugeespecific rights and more general norms of international human rights law. Against this background, students will take up as a case study the right of refugees to work in asylum countries.

The second part of the subject is student-directed, with each student in the class taking responsibility to investigate a current situation in which refugee rights are arguably at risk, and to conceive and present an international legal intervention strategy for critique by the lecturer and other students.

Principal topics will include:

• Rights under the Refugee Convention
• Case study: The right to work
• Strategising for effective international intervention.

This subject seeks to understand how judges arrive at judgments and thus the complex question of adjudication. By examining key elements of the vast literature that has analysed the process of adjudication, the course attempts to develop the conceptual tools by which each student can approach the reading of judgments of courts. The subject then intensively discusses a number of important cases from various jurisdictions – the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, South Africa and Canada. By applying the insights learned from the earlier conceptual discussion, the course examines the judicial mind that has given rise to the judgments so studied. In this way, the subject talks to practitioners who litigate and can reflect on the means of help shaping the judgment they so seek, as well as to those lawyers who wish to develop a comprehensive understanding of both the theory and practice of adjudication.

Principal topics include:

• A critical reading of key texts – Hart, Raz, Fuller, Dworkin, Habermas, Derrida and Kennedy
• Language, linguistic theory and the law
• Reading judgments (Australian and comparative) – both in the area of constitutional/human rights law and private law
• The impact of political emergency upon the judicial function/adjudication.

Political, social and constitutional upheavals are currently in full swing in Latin America. What happens in Latin America produces flow-on effects in all regions of the globe. This subject offers a survey of the different models of democracy currently ‘competing’ in the region, and a consideration of how those models translate into different ‘models’ of constitutionalism. The subject offers an analysis of the current constitutional debate in Latin America, contextualising that debate within the history of constitutionalism in the region over the last two hundred years. The subject will relate the contemporary constitutional debate to global and regional debates about models of democracy and the impact of globalisation in constitutional law and practice. The subject will also focus on the role played by the Inter-American Human Rights System in both the constitutionalism and models of democracy debates.

Principal topics will include:

• Conceptions of ‘democracy’ and conceptions of ‘constitutionalism’ in contemporary Latin America
• Neo-liberal democracy, social democracy, radical democracy and populism in Latin America
• Historical perspectives on constitutionalism in Latin America
• The judicialisation of Latin American politics
• Global influences in Latin American constitutionalism
• The Inter-American Human Rights System and constitutionalism in Latin America
• Processes of constitution making in contemporary Latin America.

Intergovernmental relations permeate every aspect of Australian government. It is not possible to fully understand Australian law without an appreciation of how it is affected by arrangements between the Commonwealth and the states. Corporations law, mining law, environmental law, medical law and a host of other fields are based, in one way or another, on arrangements of this kind. This unique subject deals with the complex and opaque framework of law and practice by which intergovernmental arrangements are structured. It demonstrates that the framework is changing, through new legislation, intergovernmental agreements and constitutional interpretation, and offers students the knowledge and skills to follow and critically assess these developments for themselves. The use of examples from current intergovernmental arrangements makes this an intensely practical subject. The subject design also presents the big picture in a way that encourages the class to reflect on the significance of the phenomenon of intergovernmental co-operation as a whole. While the subject has a primarily Australian focus, international students who are curious about multi-level government may find it of interest for this reason as well. Both members of the teaching team have long experience in the area and bring to the subject a rich mix of theoretical understanding and practical insight, from Australia and elsewhere.

Principal topics will include:

• General constitutional principles
• The intergovernmental relations map
• References of power: Constitution section 51(38)
• Techniques for uniform law
• Grants and agreements
• Intergovernmental institutions
• Executive cooperation
• Cooperation between courts
• The High Court and intergovernmental cooperation
• Administrative law and intergovernmental cooperation
• Fiscal federalism and intergovernmental relations.

Whilst the High Court has recognised and applied an implied constitutional guarantee of freedom of governmental and political communication, speech on matters of public interest in Australia remains subject to a wide range of legal limitations, many of which would be struck down as unconstitutional in other common law jurisdictions. This subject explores the limitations on free speech that arise as a result of proceedings and processes initiated by arms of the state and prosecutorial authorities: legislative, executive and judicial, and from censorship of sexually-explicit material to restrictions applying to the advocacy of terrorism. Those restrictions profoundly affect the material that may be published by the media. It is the impact of the current restrictions on free speech on both the media and on non-media elements of civil society that are the focus of this subject. Taken individually and collectively, these regimes limit the access of Australians to speech that matters.

This subject provides an examination of Australian law affecting the media’s ability to report the courts, the executive and parliament.

Principal topics include:

• Contempt of court
• Contempt of parliament
• Offensive publications: violence, pornography and racism
• Seditious publications
• Access to information in court
• Government information: security and official secrets
• Freedom of speech: theoretical issues and international perspectives.

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) provide a bridge between governments and civil society and are recognised within the United Nations (UN) system for their credible role in monitoring and advocating for human rights compliance within their country. A distinguishing feature of a NHRI is that, in order to meet the UN’s Paris Principles, it must be genuinely independent of the government that created it and that appointed its president and commissioners. Herein lies an inevitable tension. The obligation of the NHRI to monitor compliance with human rights may fail to meet the policy and political priorities of either or both the government and civil society. The independence of NHRIs is vital to ensuring evidence-based, legally accurate and objective monitoring of human rights compliance. That independence is however under constant threat. The United Nations Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders plays a significant role in ensuring that states are held accountable for protecting the independence of their NHRI. So too, civil society can provide vital community support to ensure respect for NHRIs.

This subject examines the role of the 118 or so NHRIs throughout the world and argues for their strengthening and independence of government and for their voice within the UN human rights system.

Principal topics include:

• The international standards governing National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs)
• The role of NHRIs in promoting and protecting human rights, from theory to practice; effective strategies; prevention and early intervention
• International monitoring mechanisms and their relationship to NHRIs; the effect of globalisation
• The mandates, functions and powers of NHRIs, with specific attention to those in Australia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and references to those in Afghanistan, Jordan and Palestine
• The relationship between NHRIs and government, parliament, the judiciary, other independent institutions, NGOs and civil society
• International and regional cooperation among NHRIs.

The High Court’s 1993 Mabo decision and the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) enable Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders to seek the recognition in Australian law of rights arising under their traditional laws and customs in respect of land or waters, as native title. Native title groups may also seek compensation in certain cases for acts that have extinguished or otherwise affected their native title.

A determination of native title by the Federal Court requires proof of matters including the content of the relevant traditional laws and customs, the nature of the rights and interests, and the connection of the native title claim group with the land or waters by those laws and customs. Other matters to be addressed at trial include whether particular rights and interests are capable of being recognised by the common law, and whether valid laws or executive acts of the state or Commonwealth have extinguished native title such that it may not be recognised. Establishing native title also raises issues that are both theoretical and practical, such as the nature of ‘law’ and ‘tradition’, and the interaction between two systems of law.

Once native title is recognised, or a claim is registered, native title holders must engage with other elements of Australian law including state land management and resource extraction regimes, negotiate with other land users including mining companies, make and implement agreements, and manage the proceeds of those agreements using contemporary legal tools such as companies and trusts. Native title holders must manage their recognised native title rights and interests through a corporation that holds the native title on trust for them or manages it as their agent.

The lecturer has many years of academic scholarship in this area, engagement in law reform debates and providing practical, client-focused legal advice.

Principal topics include:

• Aboriginal and Western relationships with land: two systems of law
• Recognition of native title: the Mabo decision and the Native Title Act
• Proof of native title
• Native title practice: role and obligations of a lawyer for a native title group
• Decision-making by native title groups
• Extinguishment of native title
• Dealings with native title: future acts and agreements
• Alternative approaches to land justice in Australia
• Managing native title: commercial native title rights, tax, native title corporations, native title and land management, etc.
• Compensation for invalid acts affecting native title
• International and comparative approaches.

Lawyers need to persuade many different audiences, including their clients, their opponents, their employers and employees, juries, the courts and others. This subject will help lawyers to persuade more effectively, through a mixture of theoretical and practical approaches. Students will read widely about advocacy, persuasion and influence, including from empirical studies and research from disciplines other than law (such as psychology). Students will also develop their practical skills in both written and oral persuasion, led by a very experienced teaching team: Noah Messing from the Yale Law School (and author of The Art of Advocacy), Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth from the Supreme Court of Victoria and experienced commercial barrister and teacher David O’Callaghan QC.

Principal topics include:

• Leading theories of persuasion, in the law and generally
• Empirical research into the persuasion of judges, other lawyers and lay people in a legal context (including juries and clients)
• Empirical research into other instances of persuasion
• Cognitive biases and how the law does—and should—react to them
• The balance between ethics and persuasiveness
• Developing a generalised theory of persuasiveness and how various actors reach various decisions
• Different ways to practically apply those theoretical approaches.

This subject examines the law applicable to planning and development projects within Victoria. A detailed analysis of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic) and its application will be supplemented by an examination of the various political and economic aspects that are continually at play in the Victorian planning regime. The subject will also address the interaction of the Victorian planning regime with a number of other statutory processes relevant to the development of land within Victoria, such as those contained within the Environment Protection Act 1970 (Vic), the Subdivision Act 1988 (Vic), and the Building Act 1993 (Vic).

A key component of the subject will be a case study concerning a hypothetical development proposal.

Principal topics include:

• The conceptual framework for planning law in Victoria
• Evaluation of the various components of the Victorian planning regime, focusing on the operation of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic) and the Victoria Planning Provisions
• The role of key actors under the Victorian planning regime (such as the Victorian Minister for Planning and municipal councils) and the key processes established under the regime
• The review of decisions made under the regime (both in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and the Supreme Court of Victoria) and the powers available to relevant planning authorities under the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic)
• Particular problems that arise in the Victorian planning system such as the fair and equitable distribution of undesirable land uses, the limitation of urban sprawl within metropolitan Melbourne, the appropriate level of public participation in decision-making processes, and the need to deliver sound planning outcomes in a timely and efficient manner
• The interaction of the Planning and Environmental Act 1987 (Vic) and the Building Act 1993 (Vic).

This subject deals with the body of law and practice that applies to states as they emerge from conflict and try to build strong, prosperous and responsive communities. It lies at the intersection of several bodies of law including international law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law and domestic constitutional law. Many of the issues with which it deals are at the cutting-edge of these fields: the extra-territorial effect of constitutional law; the possibility of a ‘lex pacificatoria’ to govern the ambiguous character of intra-state peace agreements; the legitimacy of constitutions developed with international assistance; the notion of transformative military occupation. The two teachers in this highly innovative subject bring different bodies of expertise to bear on it. Professor Bruce Oswald is an international and international humanitarian law specialist; Laureate Professor Cheryl Saunders works in the area of comparative constitutional law. Both have practical experience of aspects of post-conflict state-building, which informs their approach to teaching and research in the field.

Principal topics include:

• The concepts inherent in post-conflict state-building
• International humanitarian law and the law of occupation
• Current trends in peace-building
• The relevance of constitution building to post-conflict state-building
• Role and use of human rights to protect vulnerable groups
• The relevance of context in post-conflict state-building programs
• Role and contribution of civil society.

Human rights, community development and poverty are three areas that demand both critical academic scholarship as well as committed practical intervention. The three areas are distinct yet also overlapping, and this subject will explore the personal, political, programmatic and conceptual dimensions of theories and practice in all three areas.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this subject will explore how human rights have been invoked to challenge development practices that produce or exacerbate extreme poverty and how international development institutions like the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have incorporated human rights principles in their poverty alleviation initiatives. Throughout, this subject will take a historical and critical perspective, working with case studies to interrogate the efficacy of human rights practices to challenge the underlying geopolitical dynamics that produce and perpetuate global poverty. This subject will be grounded in the lived experiences of people in different contexts around the world, to localise the conceptual discussions within the dynamic realities of everyday life.

Principal topics include:

• Concepts of human rights
• Law and legal consciousness in everyday life
• Scope, distribution and socio-political dynamics of global poverty
• Questions of measuring development and monitoring economic and social change
• Representation and social mobilisation of human rights, development and poverty concerns.
• Overview of major international organisations charged with poverty alleviation (World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations Development Program)
• Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach to human development
• History and theory of the right to development and rights-based development
• Concept of poverty as a human rights violation
• Human rights conditionalities on development projects (for example, related to economic management or social inclusion)
• The pragmatic use of rights rhetoric and tools to build social movements to fight poverty
• Thematic case studies on areas including health (focusing on HIV), gender equality, education, food security and civic participation in local and national decision-making processes.

This subject examines the relationship between surveillance and privacy, with a particular focus on the challenge of regulating new surveillance technologies and protecting informational privacy. Beginning with a brief overview of the history of identification and mass surveillance (such as census-taking, record-keeping, as well as passports and identify cards), the subject focuses on how the law in countries such as the Australia, the UK and the US has been used to protect privacy rights and restrict the use of overly intrusive surveillance techniques by the state and private sector.

Principal topics include:

• An overview of the history of surveillance, with a particular focus on the relationship between state surveillance and governance
• A detailed examination of different conceptions and justifications of individual privacy (including a critical analysis of the idea that there should be a free-standing right to privacy)
• A critical examination of how various forms of state and private sector surveillance are regulated in Australia, the UK, and the US
• A close examination of the regulatory challenge posed by emerging surveillance technologies, including various forms of biometric surveillance, data mining, and communications interception
• Discussion and debate about the legal and philosophical limits of privacy, focusing on such questions as whether there should be a right to privacy in public spaces or a general right to online anonymity
• A critical examination of the prospects for law reform in the areas of surveillance and privacy in Australia, the UK, and the US.

Privacy has been valued for centuries but now there is a resurgent interest in its protection as a result of new technologies, changing social norms  and a rise of markets focused on the commodity value of information. Overlapping with the resurgent interest in privacy is a related concern about the management of data flows, especially on the part of government agencies and business organisations. The legal frameworks that deal with privacy and data protection have a long history but are coming under pressure to adapt to a more complex modern environment.

Privacy and data protection experts Professor Megan Richardson and Karin Clark explore these issues. They pay particular attention to the scope and nature of privacy protection as well as appropriate limits and exceptions, the ongoing pressures for law reform, and the practical operation of privacy and data protection laws in Australia and comparable jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• What is privacy?
• Conceptual and legal definitional issues
• International and comparative privacy and data protection regimes
• Protection of privacy in general law in Australia and comparable jurisdictions
• The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth): regulation of personal information held by the private and public sectors
• State/territory (especially Victorian) legislative regimes for the regulation of personal information
• Current topics in privacy law such as privacy and the media, privacy and health information, online privacy (including anti-spam laws), telecommunications and surveillance privacy
• Current reform inquiries and proposals and likely reforms.

Drawing on key examples from Australia, the Western Pacific and South east Asia regions, with some reference to other regions of the world, this subject examines how the law may be used as a tool to improve public health and prevent illness and disease. It also considers how laws may negatively impact the public’s health if not carefully crafted. In Public Health Law, students will develop specialised knowledge of the legal basis for public health regulation and of particular domestic laws that are relevant to a variety of critical contemporary public health issues. They will also examine the role of domestic law in relation to global public health issues and international law. The subject will complement the Melbourne Law Masters subject Global Health Law, but it is also intended to be studied independently and no prior knowledge will be assumed. Specific areas of public health concern that will be considered include communicable diseases; family health, gender and the life course; health system strengthening and universal health care; health security and emergency responses; and non-communicable diseases. The subject will also examine the law’s reach and limits noting other tools that play a vital role in achieving public health.

Principal topics include:

• What is public health law?
• The law in context:
  • Communicable diseases
    • HIV/STIs/Hepatitis
    • Immunisation and vaccines
  • Health security and emergency response
  • Surveillance and outbreaks (alert and response, International Health Regulations (IHRs))
  • Biosecurity
  • Emergency and humanitarian responses
  • Gender, equity and human rights
  • Maternal and reproductive health
  • Healthy ageing
  • Access to health services
  • Access to medicines/therapeutic goods
  • ‘Life-style’ diseases and the law
  • Substance abuse
  • Disability and injury prevention
  • Family health, gender and the life course
  • Health system strengthening and universal health coverage
  • Non-communicable diseases.

For centuries the breeding and racing of animals, especially horses, has been pursued with interest and passion in many parts of the world. A race attracts betting and from that emerges the prospect of misdeeds. As the scale and economic significance of the racing and associated betting industries have grown, so too has regulation by private groups and public authorities. Today, these industries face new challenges to their economic and regulatory models, born of a wide range of alternate gambling opportunities and the need to safeguard integrity. Changing attitudes to animal welfare are also influential. This subject explores different ways in which the law operates in this field and might be developed to meet the new challenges. It is for anyone interested in animal racing, including legal counsel, integrity officers and gambling industry participants. The three-member teaching team brings to the subject a varied and high level of expertise.

This subject will consider selected topics concerning the regulation of the racing industry (thoroughbred, harness and greyhound) in Australia. The primary focus will be upon analysing evolving regulatory arrangements and the role of public policy.

Principal topics include:

• Overview of the structure of the racing industry in Australia, including identification of key stakeholders and commercial and legal relationships
• Governance and regulatory issues, including the historical role of Principal Clubs and the trend to public regulation
• Public policy issues in gambling control and their relationship to the racing industry
• Legal aspects of breeding, purchase and ownership, including the role of the Australian Stud Book and syndication
• Liability for injury
• Occupational regulation of jockeys, trainers and bookmakers
• Legal aspects of race results, prizes and incentive schemes
• Legal issues in professional gambling
• Disciplinary powers and processes, including stewards’ hearings, appeal tribunals and judicial reviews.

The subject tackles one of the most interesting responses to globalisation, namely regional integration. Following an outline of its most prominent structures (e.g. NAFTA, MERCOSUR, ASEAN), it focuses on the deepest and most topical one, that is, the European Union (EU).

It provides an overview of its main constitutional and institutional structure, its main policies and its economic and political role in the world. It examines whether there is a distinct EU approach to regional integration and queries whether this may be transposed in other contexts.

The subject is topical and its approach contextual, as it

• Examines law in its wider political and economic context
• Explores the implications of the current economic and political crisis in Europe
• Places EU law within the increasingly interdependent globalised political and economic order.

The subject is taught by Panos Koutrakos, Professor of EU Law and Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law at the University of Bristol (UK), and joint editor of the European Law Review.

Principal topics will include:

• Regional integration as a legal and policy imperative
• The EU as a model of regional integration
• History, structure and institutions of the EU
• Interactions between the EU and national law
• The rights of individuals under EU law
• EU trade law
• The EU in the world
• Sanctions, terrorism, human rights and EU law.

Over the past few years there have been profound changes in the regulation and registration of the health professions. Fifteen professions are now included in a national scheme and others may join them. All of the registered professions are covered by the same legislation for accreditation, registration and the monitoring of practice, to ensure that standards are maintained to protect the public. More than 700,000 health practitioners are registered under the national scheme and, when it was adopted in July 2010, 66 acts of parliament were repealed and about 85 health professional boards were abolished. This subject will provide a detailed examination of the scheme, which has centralised the disciplinary process, with the state and territory registration bodies acting under delegated authority from the federal board. The subject will also provide an understanding of how health practitioners, their employers and educators can report ‘notifiable conduct’ of practitioners to the national regulator, and how healthcare consumers (patients) can lodge a ‘notification’ about the practice of a health practitioner. The course will scrutinise the concept of revalidation, and the health, fitness/character, performance and conduct pathways, analysing the factors that lead to different forms of disciplinary findings and determinations for different forms of problematic conduct, including sexual misconduct and serious error. It will examine what differentiates permissible from impermissible advertising, will evaluate how unregistered practitioners are now regulated and will explore how registered, unregistered and deregistered practitioners’ conduct is regulated by consumer protection legislation.

Principal topics include:

• Legal requirements for accreditation, registration and monitoring of practice of health practitioners in Australia
• The process and grounds for disciplinary action
• An examination of specific disciplinary proceedings against health practitioners, looking at issues of conduct, health, performance and fitness
• A comparison of disciplinary proceedings and other legal action against health practitioners
• Analysis of the regulatory mechanisms applicable to unregistered practitioners
• An evaluation of the new registration scheme and its operation to date
• A review of consumer protection actions that can be taken against health practitioners, both those who are registered and those who are not.

This subject considers ways of reimagining the international human rights regime, which is under attack from many quarters. It is said to be ineffectual, hegemonic and ill-equipped for a world that is very different from that of the era in which it was devised, and reliant for its implementation upon outmoded forms of regulation. Another set of critiques focuses on groups at the margins of the international human rights system, including women, indigenous peoples and minority sexual groups, whose human rights are often breached.

This subject reviews these critiques and examines their explanatory force. It considers ways in which the international human rights system can be reconceived to be more effective, drawing on anthropological and socio-legal scholarship. It will focus, first, on the turn to quantification in the human rights field, especially the use of indicators, and whether this is likely to increase protection of human rights. Second, the course will discuss attempts to respond to ‘outsider’ critiques of the human rights system, including the drafting of specialised treaties and instruments. Third, the course will consider the relationship between the formal mechanisms of the human rights system and the mobilisation of human rights ideas and values by social movements and non-governmental organisation. It will examine the social and cultural processes by which international norms and laws become translated into local situations. A unique feature of this course is that it combines the perspectives of international law and legal anthropology in its approach to human rights.

Principal topics include:

• A review of the key mechanisms used to promote the treaty obligations that states have accepted and how these operate
• An examination of some of the major criticisms that have recently been directed at international human rights mechanisms by governments and other key actors
• An overview of the question of evaluating impact in this field, including consideration of the work of scholars who have sought to measure the effect of ratification of human rights instruments
• The development of an ‘indicator culture’ in the human rights field
• An understanding of the role that quantification plays in defining human rights and fostering compliance through increasing accountability
• A review of recent sustained critiques of the human rights regime by scholars such as Stephen Hopgood, Samuel Moyn, Eric Posner, Harri Englund and others
• A discussion of Third World, feminist and queer critiques of the international human rights system
• Analysis of specialised treaties and instruments responding to these critiques, including CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), the Istanbul Convention on Domestic Violence and the Yogjakarta Principles
• An introduction to anthropological approaches to the international human rights system
• Examination of human rights in practice, focusing on the way these ideas are mobilised to deal with local issues such as gender violence and indigenous rights.

Sport is renowned for embodying some of the highest and most inspiring of human ideals. Few other pursuits activate the passion with which sport is played and followed. For many people, sport delivers release from the shady aspects of life. This shining image is threatened by corrupt practices around doping, match-fixing and other activities; some with links to illegal gambling and organised crime. Also, the holding of public inquiries into questionable incidents and behaviour occurring in the context of sport can have an adverse impact.

Sport bodies and governments around the world are taking legal and regulatory steps to counter these threats. This subject will explore the new frontier of sports law, from criminal laws to mandatory information sharing and monitoring arrangements, and onto the establishment and processes of inquiries. With an understanding of the international legal order around ‘integrity’ and sports investigations, students will be well-placed to contribute to this emerging field both practically and academically.

Between them, the lecturers have extensive knowledge and industry experience in sports law, anti-doping, investigations and governance.

Principal topics include at both national and international levels:

• Nature and meaning of integrity in sports competition and governance including historical and empirical perspectives
• The criminalisation of the manipulation of sporting outcomes
• The legal regulation of gambling on sport and its relationship to integrity
• Regulatory measures of sports bodies to address manipulation of sporting outcomes
• Doping and the criminal law
• The structure and role of investigative and enforcement bodies such as ethics commissions and integrity units
• The establishment and conduct of inquiries into sports activities and bodies
• Powers of investigation and information-sharing of sports bodies and relevant government authorities with particular emphasis on doping and the manipulation of sporting outcomes.

Effective tax administration is fundamental to achieving tax policy goals. This subject examines the practical issues that arise in the administration of the Australian tax system and tax administration generally. The sessions will explore in depth the administrative role of the Federal Commissioner of Taxation (FCT) in Australia's tax regime, the FCT's general powers and the interaction of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) with taxpayers, tax professionals and other authorities and agencies. The subject will also include international comparisons as relevant.

The subject will be taught by the Inspector-General of Taxation, Ali Noroozi.

Principal topics include:

• Tax administration under a self-assessment regime
• The FCT's general powers of administration
• The FCT's remedial powers
• The structure of the ATO, including the corporate governance regime and internal checks and balances
• The interaction of the FCT and the ATO with the tax profession and the role of the Tax Practitioners Board
• The ATO's interaction with taxpayers
• External scrutiny of the ATO by government and other agencies and authorities
• The ATO's role in tax policy advice and law design
• The ATO's interaction with other Australian government agencies
• The ATO's interaction with international agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

All countries face the challenge of ensuring their tax systems are able to support effective governments in the global era of increasingly mobile capital and labour, and to establish effective, fair, simple and sustainable tax systems for the future. Australia has undergone a number of major tax reform exercises over recent decades and there is an ongoing public debate in Australia, as in other countries, about how to keep the tax system relevant in a changing international economy.

This subject engages with the fundamental fiscal policy issues of today for all levels of government. It will analyse the major tax bases available for governments, the interactions of tax law with the transfer system, the challenge of environmentally sustainable taxes and issues of tax law design, complexity and administration for the future. The subject is taught by Paul Tilley, a former Australian Treasury official with a long history of tax reform in Australia.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to macroeconomics and fiscal policy
• Introduction to microeconomics and resource allocation policy
• Principles, objectives and main concepts in tax policy formulation
• The social, economic and historical – political contexts of tax policy formulation in Australia
• Major issues in tax reform in Australia, including in relation to fiscal policy and revenue adequacy, the major tax bases at each level of government, interactions within the tax-transfer system and issues of tax policy design cost, complexity and administration.

Water law and natural resources management are fundamental to human society, environmental protection and many aspects of economic productivity. Legal rules around water co-evolved with the development of many societies. Water is both necessary for life but also a source of conflict. This subject considers the international laws governing water, including principles addressing trans-jurisdictional water governance for major river systems. It canvasses emerging questions, such as whether there is a human right to water, and climate change impacts on water availability. It examines the development of common law rules around water allocation and water quality that retain an important role in water management. There is a major focus on indigenous water rights.

The general development of statutory-based water law, concentrating on the Australian federal and Victorian situation, provides the main case study of water law and governance. The subject examines the water law reforms leading to adoption of the national Water Act 2007, and covers the federal legislation, such as the development of environmental water regulation and water trading. It provides an examination of the Victorian water legislation, which explores catchment and natural resources management issues. The subject has a focus on groundwater and looks at impacts on groundwater due to mining and fracking. This subject covers urban water laws, with a focus on novel uses, such as water recycling and storm water capture.

Principal topics include:

• International law and policy governing water, including examination of relevant treaties and conventions
• Water rights: including human rights and cultural rights – especially those of Indigenous peoples
• An overview of the current system of Australian statutory regimes for surface water and groundwater allocation and use
• Australian national water and resource management reforms, including the National Water Initiative
• The Water Act 2007 (Cth), including water trading and water planning
• Environmental water regulation
• Victorian water laws, including water authorities and governance models
• Water quality: addressing point source and diffuse water pollution
• Integrated catchment and natural resource management, including relevant catchment management legislation
• Urban water laws, including alternative water uses such as stormwater, and innovative recycling models such as water-sensitive urban design.

Increasingly and at all levels of the judicial hierarchy, written submissions are expected of, and are becoming an important tool for, advocates. Written advocacy also plays a role in a range of other legal documents, such as advices, affidavits and statements of facts. This subject aims to critically evaluate the use of written advocacy (principally in litigation) and to develop advanced skills in the preparation of legal documents. There will be a particular focus on written submissions, including written submissions at first instance and on appeal, and including both the factual and legal aspects of submission writing. This subject will focus on effective written advocacy by examining techniques used in Australia and, by way of comparison, techniques used in appellate courts in the United States and the United Kingdom. The subject will involve guest speakers from the judiciary and the Victorian Bar to provide practical perspectives on written advocacy.

Principal topics will include:

• Written advocacy:
  • History and role of written submissions in Australian courts
  • Comparison with oral advocacy
  • Comparison between Australia and the United States and the United Kingdom
  • Submissions at first instance and at appellate level
  • High Court submissions
• The writing, organisation and structure of well-written submissions, with a focus on the various aspects of the submissions, including:
  • Themes
  • Issues
  • Structure
  • Facts
  • Legal Argument
  • Style.